Women Role in Development of Pakistani Rural Communities

Women are playing a major role for the developmental change
in rural communities in Pakistan. But unfortunately their work is not regarded
as productive, organized and documented all over the world. However, in this
present age of industrialization, rural women are uplifting the living
standards by performing various activities in Pakistan. Since our population of
women is approximately 50% of the total population and the majority lives in
rural areas so the main focus of development is rural communities and
agriculture.

Women’s labour force participation rate has increased over
the years, as they have been intensively involved in agriculture and its allied
fields. They perform abundant labour intensive jobs such as weeding, cotton
stick collections, grass cutting, picking, and separation of seeds from fibre
According to Labour Survey of Pakistan (2006-07), 70% of female labour force are
engaged in agriculture and its allied fields and play very hard-hitting role
like milking, feed and watch of the livestock.

Due to media, women folk are becoming aware of their rights
regarding health, food, child care etc. Women folk have shattered the shackles
of slavery in rural areas. They have come out of the houses and have also
indulged themselves in teaching because mainly due to lack of education we are
far behind other nations.

Various NGO’s run by women folk who are aiding pilot
projects in rural areas, informing people about sanitation, health, education
and better facilities for the rural communities like schools, hospitals, gyne centres etc. Prevention from Polio, Chickenpox, Dengue and other diseases is a
regular feature in our rural communities. Educated women who migrated from
rural to urban after marriage have also played an essential role as they are
actively participating in elections. Their representation in assembly has also
increased. Our main voters live in rural areas.

We are on the right path but it will take a giant effort
from all the stakeholders including the government elected members and foremost
the will to do things. Infrastructure is still in the hands of Jagirdars, feudal
lords and so on. They want women folk under their control. Apart from all this,
change has also started to occur.

Our handicrafts especially handmade embroidery, Multani
dress designs with vibrant colors are famous all over the world. If given the
proper platform, women can be promoted through chamber of commerce and
industries. The female laborers who are crafted to design and make these
designs can increase our exports. But they are being exploited by the exporters
for their personal good and enrichment. The charges they are giving to these
craftsmen are barely enough to meet their requirements.

Change in these societies can only be brought within rural
communities by spreading proper education. Education will enlighten them and
money can make their life comfortable and can increase the production of their
handicrafts. They can buy raw material, power machinery etc. So this change
will affect their life style as well. In this regard government must formulate
policies in order to enhance their skills and their work should be counted in
economic indicators.

The best method to increase the agriculture yield per acre
was the cooperative system known as kuwatza by the Israelis. Without foreign
aid they helped each other and gave remarkable results to the world. So the
foremost thing is that the people of the community especially women folk should
join hands with each other and discuss matters of mutual interests. The
well-to-do should keep the needy and the poor so that they can keep on
surviving and stand on their two feet. Individually no women folk without
proper backing can bring change but as a society they can have a voice of their
own and their demands can be met only then they will able to bring a dynamic
change in the rural community. Exertions should be made for increasing women’s
access to suitable sources of information friendly home management and farm
based technologies and opportunities to work shoulder to shoulder with their
husbands in non-farm activity for improving rural poverty and mounting gender
equality.

Moreover, major steps have to be taken by the women folk
themselves and they can choose their own spokeswomen who are capable of
expressing their views, difficulties and are strong enough to stand against the
tyranny of the feudal lords. This will bring a revolutionary change in the
rural communities. The answer is simple who will bell the cat.

Written By:

Mariam Daud SaeedBS (Hons) SociologyPunjab University, Lahore

Women Role in Development of Pakistani Rural Communities
Reviewed by Gul Chaudhry
on
May 19, 2013
Rating: 5

1 comment:

Hello Gul, I liked your blog and the special feature of it that you write on any topic you love. This makes a blogger realy to express his thoughts on any subject and blogging becomes a very easy task. I also have two blogs, one sticked to a single subject and the other one is a general one on which I blog about anything I find interesting to write about.